VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA--NO WAY OUT
NO WAY OUT WRITER-ROBERT HAMNER and ROBERT LESLIE BELLEM DIR-FELIX FEIST TEASER An Oriental like area in a country not our own: a woman named Anna Ravec helps two men open a coffin. A live man, Anton Kowslow comes out. He will soon up himself into the hands of Admiral Nelson and no one else. He trusts only Nelson. Nelson and Crane come in, wearing plain clothes and show the cautious men their IDs. Anton looks forward to having deep philosophical discussions with Nelson in the future. At Horse Shoe Cover, four miles south of the harbor, they are to meet Seaview. Crane and Nelson take Anna out. Anton goes into the coffin and the men put a lid on it. The coffin is put on a truck and it drives off past a sign that says Huai. A Chinese man and Cuban point a gun and a machine gun at them. One man driving the truck is shot as is the other man (dead?). The coffin is shot all along its length. Nelson shoots a bomb at the two men, one falls, the other gets away. The truck hits a building and a water pipe breaks or a hydrant is turned over. Nelson and Crane get in the truck--the passenger man is taken out--he looks okay. Nelson and Crane drive the truck off. ACT ONE Seaview surfaces amid excellent stock music. Anna had taken off when the shots were fired. Nelson and Crane go to Sickbay where Doc (Richard Bull) checks Anton--he lost a lot of blood but he is strong and stubborn. Doc says, "There's always hope." Crane and Nelson go to Sparks with a top priority message for the scrambler: code Alpha Number--they have their escape from Jakarta. The US government men get the message code--4362---"That's the Seaview." Another says, "Uh-huh." Good Seaview music. One of the DC men, Warren Parker, goes to the airport. Sparks decodes the message back--827 Alpha. Nelson smokes (yuck). Parker is an expert that is to debrief Anton en route about the South East Asia Red spy network. Anton has key information. In a mock Seaview hallway, a man does excellent karate work against an Oriental man and knocks down another. One of these, Vlaslov is dead--his back snapped. The karate man, Victor Vail tells his boss, Colonel Lascoe they might as well weed out the incompetence here instead of in the field. Lascoe tells him he is the perfect pupil...or is it he, Lascoe, is the perfect teacher. A plane lands. A sign at the airport reads Djakarta: Parkir Untuk Lopang Terbang. Go figure. Mr. Parker goes to a limo--a black sedan, meeting the driver and asks for a light. The driver gives him the code. The plane was one hour late--it hit a 40 mile head wind. The driver is Victor who drives Parker toward Seaview which is anchored up the coast 20 miles ahead. Parker tells Victor he may turn on the radio--which activates two sharp knives that spring out of the back of the back seat--killing Parker in a brutal scene. Victor smiles as if he likes this too much. Oddly, there is little blood in the car if any. No blood is seen, thank goodness. But how does Victor hide this from Crane and Curley when he pulls up to their road block. Crane tells Parker he was feeling land locked and is glad he is here. He points out Seaview is up the road one fourth of a mile and just past a bend in the road. We hear jungle sound effects. Crane brings Victor who is posing as Parker, down the ladder into the Control Room. Nelson tells him, "You want to see Kowslow." Victor smiles, "More than just see him, Admiral. Alot more." ACT TWO VOYAGE theme song is played. Victor asks about Kowslow and he and Nelson leave the nose area. Control Room: 35 miles in deep water due east. Code 729 Beta to Sparks; Parker-aka Victor tells them to include in the message that he has been aboard two hours and has not been able to debrief Kowslow yet. Nelson tells Sparks to include Mr. Parker's remarks. Doc tells them it is a miracle Kowslow is still alive. Victor tells him, "Nothing's impossible." Nelson agrees with Victor--the info is more important than the man. Kowslow wants to talk to Lee and Nelson. Sickbay has Patrick Culliton as a guard. When Doc, Victor, Lee, and Nelson are in Sickbay, Kowslow demands Anna be brought aboard--he knows what they will do to her--he was once one of them. She is in a secret hiding place. Doc tells him to stop--he's killing himself. Crane says, "We can't go back. They know we're here." But Anton wants Anna aboard and insists on it. Seaview theme. Nelson is in plain clothes and in a car but stops it, gets out, and goes to a door at night. There is no answer so he goes inside. It is dark and there is good stock music to be heard. Nelson has a small flashlight. He opens a clothes cabinet and an Oriental with a knife attacks him, jumping out at him from within. They fight but, unbelievably, Nelson wins and holds the knife to the man's throat, getting the info of where Anna has been taken: something like Bentova Bangtum on Java Head Road north of town-2nd floor west. The man tries to get away but Nelson hits him down and uses the man's own headband to tie him up. Nelson drives to an old style hotel. It is either night and lit up too much by the production team or it is dawn coming up on the night. Nelson climbs a second story trellace to the second floor and goes into a window. Anna is there but he has to cover her mouth to suppress a scream. Her hair is down and he tells her to get dressed. The Oriental gets free and calls Colonel Lascoe in some other language. Nelson and Anna climb down the trellace as Lascoe tells two guards to search. The pair run for the car and are shot at but Anna, given a gun by Nelson, who drives, shoots out the window. One of the bad guys is hit in the shoulder. Anna and Nelson come down Seaview's ladder. Anna wants to see Anton right away. Victor smiles, "Welcome home, Admiral." He looks at Anna, "You must be Anna Ravec." The pair exchange suspicious looks as if Anna knows him and fears him. After Nelson and Lee take her away, Victor leans against the wall and smiles. ACT THREE Seaview is undersea; Victor in the hallway, trying keys to the office of Nelson. He gets in and searches it and looks at plans of the Seaview. Nelson and Lee are in the hall, causing him to hide in Nelson's locker closet (what is it with these spies and closets!). Nelson and Lee discuss opening another Sickbay for the crew to keep security better on Kowslow. Crane leaves; unbuttoning his shirt, Nelson is about to fully open his locker but doesn't move the clothing aside. Victor readies a death chop to Nelson but Chip's call to Nelson requires him to leave for the Control Room. Victor leaves after Nelson does. Nelson leaves, his shirt still open. Crane wants DC to know he'd like to have Kowslow alive. Victor calls Colonel Lascoe--calling him Dubov or Debob or something--perhaps his first name or some code? Lascoe tells him, "Kowslow must be silenced but remember you're also very valuable to us." Sickbay: Culliton has a sailor hat on and cocks his rifle in warning to Victor not to go into Sickbay--it off limits to everyone now. Chip tells Victor that Capt. Crane and Admiral Nelson are in the nose and Victor goes there to complain. They talk about talking to Kowslow. Nelson tells Victor that the orders to not let anyone in didn't apply to him--of course, he can see Kowslow. It was a misunderstanding. "Of course you can see Kowslow." Crane reprimands the guard, "In the future you're to listen to all orders and carry them out as given!!!" Crane lets Victor go in. Anna has her hair up again and tends to Anton. Victor tells her to get some sleep but she stays--she owes Anton more than a few night's sleep. Seaview theme is heard as this burns up Victor. Later, Crane is in Sickbay and he relieves Anna. Crane calls her, "Quite a girl," to an awakening Kowslow. Crane says, "I used to feel the same way about a cute little nurse from Toledo. Then, ahh, my hospital insurance ran out." Nelson tells Anna in the nose, "I run a tight ship--when I say relax, that's an order." Anna tells Nelson that Kowslow will always be in danger even though Nelson promises to find them a safe haven. Victor is on the ladder listening and he then hides in the hallway. The Doc is with Anton but leaves to return in one hour (what is he on--a lunch break? or perhaps he is going to the other Sickbay that opened for the crew). Victor calls the guard, "Mack" and tells him he is sorry he got him in trouble. The guard, visibly angry, stares ahead, calling Victor, "Sir" several times in a tone of anger. The guard lets him in. Kowslow says, "Hello Mr. Parker, at last we get together." Victor says, "Yes, at last." He takes out a rag to strangle him. ACT FOUR Victor stops when Crane and the guard come in. Crane takes Victor to the Control Room to answer a DC call (AKR24). Sparks calls for them and gets Warren Number 3 Special Unit 731, Boston Triple Charlie. Victor keeps touching Sparks' shoulder to send for him--Chicago Orange 89. The US government men realize, "It's not Warren." They answer back in a stall--35 Ranger Green. The teletype is sent to the Radio Shack telling Nelson and Crane it is not Parker. Nelson says, "Perhaps you'd better add a sign off." Victor says he is not finished. Crane confronts Victor directly, "You're wrong, you're very much finished." Victor hits Crane and runs out. Nelson chases him. Victor hits a guard and fires the machine gun at another, killing a crewman and almost killing Nelson, who ducks aside in the hall. Another crewman runs at Victor--FLUB TIME--Victor shoots the machine gun right into the man and we even hear the sound effect of it being shot--and the crewman isn't shot! The crewman fights Victor who is karated down. Victor jumps up and holds onto the rafter beam to kick another man and then karate chop him after the crewman falls down! Perhaps he was mad that his valor sweater shirt rode up when he reached up and held onto the rafter beam. The fight music is good stock music for such fight scenes and other than the silly flub of the machine gun firing and not firing--this fight is rather well handled. Victor climbs into the air vents and into the round drains. Curley leads men on a search--both he and Chip's men find nothing. Nelson says, "He can do an awful lot of damage until we find him." Men search the nose. Men search the office (office from THE BUCCANEER which may or may not be the observation nose--it doesn't appear to have the windows there). Nelson looks--and we see the tiny Seaview model in the nose--so it must be the nose but somehow...oh heck. From the vent, Victor watches Crane and men search rooms. Anna's Room is C-22-L. Crane tells her Parker is not Parker--is not who he claims to be. He takes an insistent Anna to Anton. Nelson calls about the search. Control Room: Nelson figures the spy is in the vents. They send a crewman (name sounding like Wally or Wallock) into the vents. Nelson tells him to work his way extreme aft forward. Victor hides in the vent and chops the crewman out (dead?). Crane goes into another vent. Victor goes to Sickbay's vent and watches as Anna removes a poison vial from her skirt lining and puts it in a needle. She goes to give the needle to Anton. Wind blows Victor's hair as he watches, smiling. Anton gasps in shock as he realizes it is Anna trying to kill him. He holds her back as she yells, "You taught me, Anton, the party comes first--death to the defectors!!!" He calls for help but Victor comes out of the vent and helps Anna try to inject the needle into Anton! Nelson and men rush in; Anna pretends to be trying to stop Victor, "Help me!" The guard hits his rifle butt into Victor's back. Nelson and men take Victor out. Nelson goes to get the Doc. Anton has passed out. When everyone is out of the room, Anna prepares the vial and needle again. Crane is in the vent and sees this. He shoots the needle out of her hand and jumps out. He fights with her as she attempts to scratch him and get away. She cries as he tells her, holding her, "There's no place left to run or hide." Nose: Crane tells Kowslow he must thrive on excitement--"Doc even says you improved through it all." They found out the Victor Vail is the man who posed as Parker. Anna was a double agent. Both were unknown to each other. "Double agents, triple agents, where does it all end?" Anton muses. Nelson says, "That's something you have to tell us." Anton says, "Yes, as soon as I get to Washington." REVIEW: The slimy villain Victor Vail as played with a smile while murdering (played by Jan Merlin) and the equally monstrous leader Col. Lascoe. Vail, using his karate, seemed unstoppable. The ending with the second assassin on board in the form of the girl Anna, was a complete surprise on first airing. It is still difficult to expect it coming---but it makes sense and is all the more a shock. This episode featured knives coming out of the back of the car seat of one of Vail's victims. He smiles that wide smile and it makes you want to be sick! The title is similar to the fourth season and last episode NO WAY BACK. This episode was very good but all the secret coded messages can get annoying. Strong villains and a realistic search sequence once Victor is known to be the killer make this one very interesting.